We woke to another promised beautiful day and happily the forecast was right. It takes quite a while for the sun to reach down in to the valley but one sees the sun shining brilliantly on the tops of the mountains. I took a leisurely stroll round the village in the morning sun while Romilly and Eli packed to set off home at lunchtime and Annie and Jerry did various jobs in the apartment before our departure early tomorrow morning. I stopped for coffee and cake, making what I thought was my last visit to the salon de the of the trip.

Certainly as far as my waistline is concerned it’s probably as well I won’t be going there regularly! But how can one resist these treats on holiday? As it turned out, I returned an hour or so later with the others, but had only another coffee and definitely no more cake! In between I walked a lovely circular route round the village.

We lunched in the apartment and then drove a little way out of Les Diablerets to Col du Pillon (altitude 1546 metres). From there, in the glorious afternoon sun, we walked up quite a few more metres to Lac Retaud – a lake now frozen but visible as a smooth sheet of ice amongst the snow.

The walk up was quite hard going but one was rewarded with the most spectacular scenery.

In time it flattened out onto a snow plain.

It was stunning and so still and quiet with hardly another soul visible – just the occasional skier in the distance, or a handful more walkers as we turned round and headed back to the car. It was the most beautiful walk to be taken on for my last afternoon In Switzerland and the most glorious scenery of the trip for me and absolutely perfect weather with the sun strong, the sky a brilliant azure blue and no wind. Annie and Jerry told me they’d walked there in the summer and seen the ground covered magnificently in carpets of gentian flowers. One of the great things about this area of Switzerland is its beauty is year round and summer walks across the mountains are as wonderful as skiing them in the winter.

We’d booked a table at a local restaurant – in fact the one closest to us! – for a meal on our final evening.

Annie and I went totally Swiss with some veal cooked Zurich style, with mushrooms, rosti and a salad. We drank a local Pinot Noir with it.

The salad came first for us to eat separately.

Then the veal.

It was all really delicious – the wine and the meal. The restaurant was cozy and friendly and it was a fantastic way to end a lovely holiday.